Theory over practice or practice over theory? I won't give you a definite answer to apply (always! in every context!), but rather would like to invite you to explore the question itself with me. We can look into the definitions of theory and practice, wonder what our stakeholders might be, think about analogies in testing activities and question which problem we're trying to solve here. Presentation held at the 5th Cambridge Exploratory Workshop on Testing (CEWT), 28th January 2018 (https://cewtblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/CEWT%235)

1. Are Your Lights On?
CEWT #5, 28th Jan 2018, Karo Stoltzenburg
@karostol

2. Theory Over Practice
or
Practice Over Theory?
@karostol

3. Jerry Weinberg, Donald C. Gause:
Are Your Lights On? (2011)
What’s the problem?
What’s the problem?
What’s the problem, really?
Whose problem is it?
Where does it come from?
Do we really want to solve it?
@karostol

4. What for?
What problem are we trying to solve here?
@karostol

5. “A problem is a difference
between things as desired
and things as perceived.”
-- Weinberg, Gause: Are Your Lights On? p.15
@karostol

6. "CEWT is an exploratory peer workshop.
We take the view that discussions
are more interesting than lectures.
We enjoy diverse ideas,
and limit some activities
in order to work with more ideas."
-- About CEWT
@karostol

7. "CEWT is an exploratory peer workshop.
We take the view that discussions
are more interesting than lectures.
We enjoy diverse ideas,
and limit some activities
in order to work with more ideas."
-- About CEWT
@karostol

8. Theory Over Practice
or
Practice Over Theory?
@karostol

9. Theory > Practice ⋁ Practice > Theory
X = Theory > Practice Y = Practice > Theory X ⋁ Y
true true true
false true true
true false true
false false false
@karostol

10. Theory Instead Of Practice
or
Practice Instead Of Theory?
@karostol

11. Theory Over Practice or Practice Over Theory?
"Do you prefer experience or expertise?
Do you simply dive in or do you first scope out?
Do your skills get sharpened on the job or in your head?
Do we just need to get along and get on with it or are the
semantics worth getting straight?
Is the view from the coalface more valuable than the one
from the library?"
-- CEWT 5@karostol

12. Theory Over Practice or Practice Over Theory?
"Do you prefer experience or expertise?
Do you simply dive in or do you first scope out?
Do your skills get sharpened on the job or in your head?
Do we just need to get along and get on with it or are the
semantics worth getting straight?
Is the view from the coalface more valuable than the one
from the library?"
-- CEWT 5
@karostol

13. Theory Practice
expertise experience
scope out dive in
sharpened in your head sharpened on the job
getting semantics straight get along and get on with it
view from the library view from the coalface
@karostol

14. Theory
All theory, dear friend,
is grey.
-- Mephistopheles,
Goethe: Faust I.
@karostol

15. Practice
Practice does not make
perfect. Only perfect
practice makes perfect.
-- Vince Lombardi.
@karostol

16. Theory Over Practice
or
Practice Over Theory?
@karostol

17. CEWT
Medical practices
The Scientific method
Kata's (“Wax on, Wax off”)
Learning
Memory
Rituals
Testing Activities
Problem solving, investigation
Personal preference
@karostol

18. What’s the problem?
What’s the problem?
What’s the problem, really?
Whose problem is it?
Where does it come from?
Do we really want to solve it?
@karostol

19. Thank you!
Discuss!
“I've named our staging environment ‘theory’
because ‘it works in theory’.”
-- @fdevillamil, Jan 5, 2017
@karostol